


The Sound Of Water

by Andian



Category: The Shadow Over Innsmouth - H.P. Lovecraft
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-27
Updated: 2014-09-27
Packaged: 2018-02-19 00:39:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,209
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2367863
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Andian/pseuds/Andian
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>At least the pay was good. Though that was about the only good thing he could say about working in this godforsaken place that was Innsmouth. </p><p>A day in the life of the employee working at the grocery store in Innsmouth.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Sound Of Water

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Leidolette](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Leidolette/gifts).



He avoids looking at the sea as he makes his way to the store in the morning. He always does, but lately his reluctance and dislike for the sight of the Devil Reef, an unmoving island of dark and black sometimes barely visible in the ever changing blue of the waves, has grown even bigger as has his distaste for the sound of water splashing though he can not quite explain this one.

He blames the young Miss Waites personally. And maybe also the rest of Innsmouth. Mostly Miss Waites though. His hand is clasped around the key of the store, a heavy and rusty old thing, and with his head bowed he hastens through the streets and small alleys, carefully not to run into or accidentally look at the few citizen of Innsmouth who are out this early. This was another thing he had learned early on, just as he did with the places that it was best to avoid even in the dusky and dim daylight that Innsmouth seemed to have instead of normal sunny days. You did not want to look too close at those faces, so strangely hairless, frighteningly smooth, unnervingly inhuman. He had believed at first the whispers of genetic diseases, brought upon the city due to generations of inbreeding but there had to have been a lot of inbreeding for almost the whole of the city to share these familiar features. It did not help however to dwell too much on the question of what exactly had caused the features of the inhabitants of Innsmouth to change into those grotesque masks, weirdly reminiscent of pictures he had seen of the queer transformations nature sometimes forced upon its creatures either to help them adapt or as a sort of grave mistakes that needed to be remitted.

Innsmouth fell in the later category, that he has no doubt about, but as much as he dislikes working here the pay is good. Wel,l good enough at least. Though he might consider asking for a raise if Miss Waites came again today.

He has finally reached the shop and unlocks the door, making himself busy with counting the inventory. There is still an excess of cheap alcohol, but they are running low on cheese crackers. While not a favorite of the Innsmouth citizen they were selling well enough that he'd go and stock up on them this weekend. He frowns. It feels like he had forgotten something but he could not exactly remember what it was.

Suddenly he hears the bell of the door ring, signaling that somebody had entered the shop. He tenses, keeps staring determined at the boxes in front of him, even though he has already counted them twice. Maybe it is one of the older women of the city who have taken to run around with veils to hide their deformed features. They do not ever speak with him, point only with fingers hidden behind the thick cloth of gloves at the things they want and they pay him with coins so old that he avoids looking at the year they were minted, happy to dispose them in the cash register as quickly as he can. They always feel weirdly moist and slippery in his hands. He dislikes the old people who come to buy here, as much as he imagines they dislike him. Also they always make the whole shop smell like fish.

“Hello!” It was not one of these old women however who had entered his shop so early and he suppresses a sigh as he turns around. Miss Waites had yet to learn the Innsmouth way of communicating solely in blank, dead stares and disturbing silence. He forces a smile as he sees her standing in front of his small desk, barely big enough to look over it. She'd be a pretty child he supposes if the Innsmouth's gene weren't obvious in her features even at her young age but even if she hadn't been Innsmouth he had never been particularly good with children.

“Hello Miss Waites. How are you this morning?” She beams up at at him for this answer, or at least did the Innsmouth equivalent, meaning she widens her eyes and tugs the corner of her mouths up a bit. 

“Do you have apple wafers? You said you'd have wafers today!” Oh right, that's what he had forgotten. “I'll buy more this weekend Miss Waites.” He sees her face fall and he tries not to feel guilty.  


He fails.

“But I do have something really special, just for you instead,” he says quickly, eyes darting around the shop, searching for something he could give the child instead. His eyes get caught by the food packet his mother had sent him, small gifts of self-made jam and baked goods, basically anything that wasn't fish as he had, very politely, begged her in a letter.

He quickly grasps one of the pastries and hopes that it isn't filled with stuff that the Innsmouth people avoid for some strange reason. “Here Miss Waites, just for you,” he says as he presents it to the little girl in front of him.

She stares at him with wide eyes then at the pastry in his hand. “Thank you!” she then says, looking at him with so much adoration that he groans inwardly. He really can not deal with children. Especially not with those who get overly attached to him. But she smiles brightly at him and he has to smile back at that and for a brief moment Innsmouth does not seem so grim anymore.

“It's okay Miss Waites. Now, don't you have school?” She nods eagerly. “Yeah, yeah I do! They said I'm ready to go into the new class soon! Do you know what that means?” She suddenly leans forwards and beckons him closer with her knobby fingers and whispers. “I'll get my necklace soon.” She beams at him again after she says this and he is glad that she turns around and runs away, mouth stuffed full already with pasty, muffling her goodbyes cause he does not think he could smile at this.

He remembers glitter under veils, green and gold under black and dark blue, appealing and appalling at the same time and his hearts grows heavy. Under the smile and the wide eyes hid Innsmouth all the same. And soon Miss Waites would grew silent when she came his shop, while her features would dissolve and change more and more. And then one day when the smell of fish was as thick as the fog that came from the sea she would not return at all. Gone into one of the abandoned houses that are always locked since everybody in Innsmouth knows that they are not abandoned at all or maybe, and his heart clenches fearfully at this thought, maybe someplace completely different he does not dare to imagine, one where nobody would ever care about apple wafers. All he can suddenly think of are glimpses of bodies dragging themselves through the darkness of the night and the sound of water splashing.

Always. Always the sound of water.

He picks up an extra box of apple wafers this weekend. There is nothing else he can do.


End file.
